This is a good place to begin a new tradition. Looking into the wealth of fresh new poetic and literary materials in the world. Once a month, I'll be diving into the lit mag scene, both in print and online, and give some brief thoughts on what I come across with a singular focus on one (or two) pieces by a single author in an issue of one of these mags. Consider these monthly write-ups to be like scouring the mixtapes of the literary world and giving you a microdose of what I find to be interesting. The concept here is to get you interested in what is in up and coming (potentially) in the literary scene and maybe start giving these important publications some love in the way of reads/subscriptions/shares/donations.
For those that don’t know, the Malahat Review is one of Canada and North America’s premier literary magazines. Based out of University of Victoria on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, the magazine first published in 1967. They have renowned for publishing some of Canada’s finest and most accomplished literary figures. There is quite the history to this literary mag and should you be interested, be sure to give this little essay by them a read right here.
Up First: Two Poems by Lauren Peat from the Malahat Review, Issue 227
Let’s start with Lauren Peat’s “Two Poems” from Issue 227. Because I do not have reprint rights and this a post to get you to maybe buy a copy of the Malahat Review, I can’t show the exact text of the poems. When they are on-line I will share them. But let me summarize the pieces, tell you what I like about these, and then maybe leave with at least an image or a quote from them. And if you want to know more about Peat and her work, please check out that info here.
Peat’s selection has two poems. The first, “Aubade at Olympic Station,” where we experience the calm beauty of light returning to the city at dawn while the speaker moves through this half light to the mass transit station. “Like lint, desire snows/on everything: the SkyTrain approaching.” We are brought along on a movement across the physical being of a city that would make Frank O’Hara smile. The second piece, “40,000 Feet” affords us a more personal view, much less expansive than a city waking up. In declarative lines that match speech and stunted sadness, we are delivered into the realm of the focused personal spaces of familial life. “Shut up, says his sister/She’s too old for that.” This piece is much different in structure and placement than the former. The poem is heavily weighted on the conversational and the internal, placing the reader firmly with in the lyric consciousness of the poem itself. And we slide along through its pathways of sound and memory to arrive at sense of leaving and belonging. Peat’s two poems leave us with a good sense of range of poetic voice as well as one uniquely emerging from the experiences of the contemporary Canada west.
These pieces by Peat catch me in both their honesty and their clarity. They are sharply poetic, exist strongly in a moment on an experiential level, and leave you with a real haunting sense of having held space with a living breathing person. They are, most notably, creations from the earth they grew from. One feels these poems on a sweeping range of senses and emotions; from the cat lapping up milk in the cold blue of morning through to the ripple of longing in a child’s question these are the echoes of a poet’s life. And these echoes appear with a controlled line length and narrative focus. These two pieces are worthy of the space they’ve taken out in me mind. The folks at that Malahat have put together another a solid issue. Beyond these two poems in a much longer literary review, there are good number of fiction and over poetic pieces to spend time with. Most importantly check on Ryan Cannon’s “A Hunting Story” which is the Malahat’s 2024 Novella Prize and alone is worth the issue price if not the subscription itself.
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